The road begins 25 miles (40 km) east of Dawson City, the endpoint of our journey in Part One.

The vast majority of the road is unpaved, single-line, and dusty, as it is built upon a gravel berm sunk into the ground to insulate the roadbed from the permafrost below. Trees become smaller and smaller the further north you go. Most of the first few dozen kilometres carry on in this fashion.

Not much to it, right? Not exactly. Eventually, the trees disappear almost entirely as the Dempster climbs into Tombstone Territorial Park, opening up the landscape and presenting lush green, yellow and red colours along the hillside as mountains rise out of the tundra grasses:

200 km (120 miles) from the start, the Ogilvie Mountains rise like a wall out of the plains. Further up the highway, Sapper Hill presents a daunting task for climbers.

Out on the plains, trees struggle to survive in the high latitudes with no protection from the wind.

One thing noticeable along the Dempster is the lack of tourist services. It is 269 km (167 miles) to the only filling station and motel along the Yukon portion of the highway at Eagle Plains, where we catch the lead Street View car nipping off the road for a break. In remote climes such as this where there are no emergency services, it may come as a shock to some that certain portions of the road must double as airstrips.

As it heads out of Yukon and into the Northwest Territories, the Dempster crosses over the Richardson Mountains, where road conditions can deteriorate quickly. Just before the border lie a field of drumlins, mounds of debris left thousands of years ago by retreating glacial ice sheets.

To finish your Dempster journey, you must cross both the Peel River at Fort McPherson and the second-longest river in North America, the Mackenzie, at Tsiigehtchic. In winter, this must be done by driving over the river when it’s frozen. In summer, a ferry completes the job for you. Waiting for the boat provides a good opportunity for the Street View driver to perform some camera maintenance.

At the end of the highway lies the town of Inuvik, the most northerly Canadian town captured by Street View, whose cameras are greeted at the entrance to town by a traditional inuksuk (Wikipedia). Inuvik is most famous for Our Lady of Victory Church, built in the form of an igloo.

Despite its remote location (and the fact that all buildings must be built upon small stilts in order not to melt into the permafrost below), Inuvik is a rather modern town. Since it can’t sink its utilities into the ground, the town’s water lines are connected above ground with small bridges and overpasses built to cross them. We end our northern journey with the answer to the question you’ve all been asking: Is it possible to play miniature golf in the Arctic?

It most certainly is.

Locations: Yukon / Categories: Buildings, Monuments, Natural Landmarks, Street Views

View in Google Earth

The Top of the World is so named because rather than traverse the valley bottom like most roads, it spends most of its 79 miles (129 km) along the crest of the hills, looking down on the valleys below. We follow Street View through a rainy, foggy trip from Alaska across the border into Yukon. En route to the beginning of the highway, the last town you pass through is the delightfully-named burg of Chicken. Never mind the egregious stereotype that Chicken doesn’t fly, for here’s the airport:

Finally, we arrive at the official start of the highway – rather anticlimactic, isn’t it?

The port of entry on the American side is known as Boundary, your last chance to fill your tank before ascending the mountains into Canada.

The US-Canada border crossing at Little Gold Creek is rather unique, for both countries share the same customs building. Here, we see the lead Street View car checking in at customs. And, yes, they have two cars making this trip, a very necessary measure in these conditions in such a remote locale.

As our intrepid crew emerges from the fog, they are presented with some incredible valley vistas.

The Top of the World Highway ends at a ferry that crosses the Yukon River to the historic centre of the turn-of-the-20th-century gold rush town of Dawson City, an officially designated National Historic Site of Canada.

Dawson is known for keeping its gold rush legacy alive; in fact all downtown buildings are required to be built in a turn-of-the-century style, resulting in a collection of rather colourful buildings.

Not surprisingly, Dawson is quite popular with sightseeing tours, one of whom was captured by the Street View car:

Leaving Dawson on the Klondike Highway en route to Part 2 of our Yukon journey, we travel through what look like from above as strange snake-like hills. These are in fact gravel tailings left behind from the many dredges that ploughed the soil for gold into the 1960s.

In Part 2, we continue our Yukon sojourn along the stunning Dempster Highway, which will no doubt leave you under ‘The Spell of the Yukon’…

Locations: Yukon / Categories: Buildings, Natural Landmarks, Street Views

View in Google Earth

After 28 years of service, mostly among Canada’s northern communities, the plane was retired in 1970 and lay idle for a while. Volunteer effort led to its restoration and it was mounted on a carefully designed pedestal in 1981. The plane is so well balanced that a wind of only 5 knots will cause it to turn. According to Wikipedia, the DC-3 is almost 20m long, 5m high and weighs over 8000kg.

I should mention that, from what I can tell, the plane has not been officially recognised, with the Guinness World Record currently being held by a weather vane atop the Tio Pepe facility in Jerez, Spain. However, as it’s somewhat smaller than a plane, and the Google images are not great, it’s hard to spot. Live Maps has a clearer view.

It’s difficult to find much information about the Tio Pepe weather vane – this site describes it as standing almost 40m tall (but judging from the pictures that height must includes the building it is atop) and weighing 2700kg.

In addition, there is a weather vane in Montague, MI staking a claim to be the largest, though again – at 14m tall and 8m long – it may be taller than a DC-3, but is not quite as big! The Google imagery of the town is very low resolution, but Live Maps has a pretty good bird’s eye view.

Locations: Michigan, Spain, Yukon / Categories: Aircraft, Structures

View in Google Earth

Firstly stretching over a large part of Alaska, all the way into the Yukon territory, is this gargantuan hole in the landscape. Interesting shape too…

Next we leap to the other side of the country for a very strangely-shaped hole West of El Paso. See the odd in-road of detail at the bottom-left corner of the rectangle? Weird.

While we’re down in Mexico, look at this super-cool hole which appears to be eating the surrounding landscape. Good lord!

Another country-wide leap and we’re somewhere off the coast of New Jersey, where this unsuspecting little boat is about to steer itself straight into the next episode of Lost!

However, could this incredibly exciting conspiracy theory simply be something much mre mundane..?

Muchos gracias to Eder Chiunti, Dan Karran, Lurlock, JoakimE and Ian.

Locations: Alaska, Mexico, New Jersey, Yukon / Categories: Weirdness

View in Google Earth